Is Kalambay-McCallum I one of the very best performances in history?

[DINAMITA]

Is it overrating/overstating to say that Sumbu Kalambay's win over Mike McCallum is one of the best performances in history and one of the very best wins of that era?

Kalambay had been fighting a relatively low level of opposition in his career before he became a world champion, he was not a fighter of great top-level experience by the time he fought McCallum.

He had already lost 3 times in his career, including a contentious defeat to Ayub Kalule.

He had a great win over the 38-0 Herol Graham, beat Iran Barkley, and then fought the Bodysnatcher when Sumbu was 32.


At the time, McCallum was 32-0 and had knocked out Don Curry and Julian Jackson in the previous couple of years. He was (rightfully) very highly rated.

Kalambay can legitimately claim to be the only man to ever beat/outbox prime McCallum. Mike was a natural lmw, but he was also very good at mw, beating Graham, Collins and Watson there before drawing with a peak James Toney.


Kalambay did not only become the first man to defeat McCallum, but his performance was, in my opinion, nothing short of sensational.

I only recently seen this fight, and I genuinely believe it is one of the finest displays of boxing skills in history.

Am I overrating/overstating, or did Sumbu Kalambay produce one of the greatest performances ever?

(I am maybe being slightly biased you see, as I am a big McCallum fan so I am pretty blown away by Kalambay in this fight)



Also, to those who respond - do you think it was a better win than Curry-Honeyghan or Hearns-Duran? Do you think it was a better performance than Leonard-Benitez or Whitaker-Nelson?

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[Mantequilla]

I don't know about one of the best performances in history, i'm not too big on accolades like that in general....though no doubt if it had come from Floyd against a mccallum level guy you would never hear the end of it on the general forum;).It's certainly among the great pure\technical boxing displays, that seemed to get brushed under the carpet for a long time, especially when McCallum was getting his big internet push as massively underrated a few years back.

I think kalambay would have done more in his career had he not turned pro so late, and had more focused early career matchmaking.By the time he came back from the Nunn disaster he had got too old, losing a notch of athleticism and his workrate had notably declined.

Of course Hagler would have been there had he got going earlier and i don't think he would have overcome that, but i tend to think he would have performed more than well enough to be seen in the kind of light Buchanan and Dejesus were to Duran\Winstone with Saldivar\laguna with ortiz etc... and the wins afterward when in his thirties would have sealed the deal as being an excellent fighter and not a forgotten titleist that completely blew it in his big unification fight against Nunn.

[highlite70]

McCallum was a great fighter

[Sweet Pea]

Certainly one of the best pure boxing displays I've seen. Not a missed step from Kalambay that night. I believe he'd have given any MW of the last 25 years or so a very difficult night, particularly guys like Toney.

[Woller]

Sumbu Kalambay was a great fighter. He could have been Mike McCallums bogeyman. Sumbu was mighty close to beat Mike second time around too.

Woller